As you may already know (for those of you following a link from my Edit Author Slug plugin), version 0.8 will be the last version to officially support WordPress 3.1.4 or less. The biggest reason for this, is because I want to take full advantage of PHP 5 which wasn’t a minimum requirement until WordPress 3.2. Version 0.8 has no real new features, other than the fact that it’s been greatly improved. Rather than alienate users who haven’t, yet, had the chance to upgrade their WordPress install (but seriously… you really should), I decided to stick with the currently supported installs, and just make Edit Author Slug even more awesome as a final goodbye to those stragglers (have I mentioned you really should upgrade your WordPress). The next version will finally have some new features instead of just being a code rewrite, like some of the earlier versions.

Edit Author Slug 0.6 brings with it a new “feature.” I put “feature” in quotes, because it’s not one you would know existed if it aren’t someone who goes digging around other’s code. With this new version of Edit Author Slug (at the request of Mark), you can now remove the author base entirely from your WordPress author links. Instead of http://www.example.com/author/mark/, you can have http://www.example.com/mark/. However, due to the way WordPress handles its rewrite rules, removing the author base could have negative consequences when it comes to accessing your site. It is possible, although not highly likely, that you could end up on a page, or even a post, rather than the intended author page. In order to avoid support requests that are likely to crop up if this were a visible feature, I’ve decided to leverage WordPress’ wonderful action/filter system to add a barrier to entry for this feature. The idea is that if you can’t add the proper code to your functions.php, or write a plugin to add the necessary code, you probably aren’t ready for the consequences of removing your author base. Now, with a strong disclaimer of ,”Use at your own risk!,” I give you

add_filter( 'baeas_remove_author_base', __return_true );

Assuming you’re using WP 3.0.x or greater (and you are, aren’t you?), just add this to your functions.php or a custom plugin. Once you’ve added the code, go to your make Permalinks page in the dashboard, make sure the “Author Slug” field is blank, then click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page. You should find the author base section of your permalinks gone!

I just tagged Edit Author Slug a few minutes ago in the WordPress plugin repository. It has gone live on WordPress Plugins Directory, and will likely be available via auto-upgrade within the next 24 hours. No major changes in this release, as this release was mostly about usability enhancements.

Edit Author Slug now adds an “Author Slug” column to the user list in the Dashboard (Users > Authors & Users for 2.9.x and Users > Users for 3.0+). Thanks to Yonat Sharon for the code jumpstart. I altered the processing of the author slug before saving, which has allowed for a wider variety of characters. You are no longer restricted to alpha-numeric characters and numbers. Aside from that there were a few minor bug fixes. Most of the bug fixes were just things I wanted to do better. Hope you continue to find the plugin useful!

So, it’s not the greatest of milestones, but my first plugin in the WordPress Plugin Repository,Edit Author Slug, has reached 1,000+ downloads. I still have lots more I’d like to do with the plugin, and I have a few more plugins in the works. Hopefully, this will be the first of many such milestones.

A couple of hours ago, I tagged Edit Author Slug 0.4 for release. This new version brings a few enhancements. As I stated in the release announcement of Edit Author Slug 0.4-beta1, you can now gain full control of your Author slugs and links. This new version allows you to, not only update the Author Slug, but the Author Base as well. I’ve also greatly expanded and improved code documentation. Thanks to Marcis G., Belorussian I have added to the list of translations. Finally, but in my opinion most importantly, I’ve added some extra security checks to help harden Edit Author Slug against XSS attacks.

Edit Author Slug 0.4-beta1 is now available in the WordPress Plugins Directory. You can find it under “Other Versions” in the Plugins Directory, or via the direct download link at the bottom of this post. This new version adds the ability to change the Author Base, which WordPress sets to ‘author‘ by default. This means that Edit Author Slug now gives you full control of your author links. Below I’ve added a before and after example of the new power of Edit Author Slug.

I forgot to mention that the plugin should be very stable. The main reason for the beta is to allow translators to get their translations in before I officially release the plugin. If you’re a translator, and you’d like to add your language, grab the download, and get to work. You can find the template in the plugin folder under languages/edit-author-slug.pot. My preferred contact information can be found there.

Localization is now possible for Edit Author Slug 0.3+. Ideally, this would have been possible from the beginning, but I was lazy. I’ve included a file — edit-author-slug.pot — which can act as a template for your localized po/mo files. Contact details are in the file, so if you decide to translate the plugin, just send me the files, and a note with the language you’re translating, and I’ll get them added in an update.

So , when I sat down to code version 0.2, I made some significant changes to one of the functions. In the process, I removed an important check to determine if that author slug had actually been changed before attempting to update. This caused issues when trying to update your profile info, or that of another user, giving an error stating that the author slug was already in use. Well, obviously, the slug was in use, which lead the display of an erroneous error message. I didn’t thoroughly test the bug, but it may also have prevented profiles from being updated at all. The issue has now been resolved, and is another reminder of why you always test, retest, then re-retest before committing code for public consumption. Download Edit Author Slug 0.2.1